Hello I have been using Spark 4G rural wireless broadband for over two years. Apart from some early variability, the connection has been consistently solid since March this year with 90 - 100 Mb/s download and 40-50 Mb/s upload. My computer connection is Ethernet, not Wifi.My house in the Western Bay of Plenty is on the top of a 100m hill with no obstruction to the tower on the next hill, 2 km away. The modem faces the tower through glass doors. The modem statistics for signal quality and strength are excellent and are unaffected by the speed problem.RSRQ = -3dB, RSRP = -77 dBm, SINR = 21 dB.The download speed dropped dramatically in the first week of October to 1-5 Mb/s. After no improvement I lodged a fault call with Spark on 8 October. Resets at both ends didn't help. A replacement modem was supplied but it made no difference and the issue was sent back to the network team on 20 October. After no response I chased up the fault call on 31 Oct and went through another reset without success.Spark said the issue couldn't be escalated unless I recorded speed tests over a day and sent them via email after which I would be called back the next morning (1 Nov). A couple of dozen test results were recorded and emailed, covering 7.40 am to 10.40pm, mainly for 31 Oct but some were recorded during the previous days. Min/Max downloads = 1.74 - 7.99 Mb/s. Min/Max uploads = 13.81 - 37.29 Mb/s. There was no call-back and no response to the email.As the one-month anniversary of the speed drop approaches and considering Spark's comment to me that I should expect drops with more network users and time of day, I wonder if I'm being softened up to accept this as the new normal.I changed to wireless as the ADSL was poor at <5 Mb/s but the local cabinet has since been upgraded and I would get 20 Mb/s if I changed back. Incidentally, I also tested a Spark cellphone 4G connection to the same tower (wifi turned off) and got 2/3 Mb/s download. I tested a Vodafone 4G cellphone at the same time to a Vodafone tower 8-10 km away, partially obstructed, and got 55 Mb/s download and a later one at 90 Mb/s.
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4G rural wireless broadband speeds plummet
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Emails randomly not received.
HiI have a serious problem with Spark email. I have had a number of emails sent to be that I have not received. I have a home email address and I own a .co.nz domain. Emails sent to my domain are redirected to my spark account. The Spark account is the only email account I have.About once a month, emails sent to me are blocked by Spark. Usually the sender tries multiple times and all emails are blocked. The problem I have is that I ususally don't know they have been blocked unless the sender phones me. Sometimes the sender does get an error message. An example is:SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data: host mx.xtra.co.nz [210.55.143.33]: 550 5.7.1 Message rejected due to SPF policyThere is no obvious reason why Spark chooses to block the emails. The most recent example was an email sent from a company in Gisborne to me. They tried sending emails several times before phoning me. I did not know that their emails had been blocked until they called me. The missing emails were not in my Spark spam folder. I now know I am not the only customer with this problem. I sent an order to a company in Auckland (also Spark Xtramail customers). They didn't receive my first email, and like me, they didn't know it had been blocked. I didn't know that the email had been blocked either. It was only when I sent another email to ask if they had actioned the first did either of us realise there was a problem.This is very serious. I rely on reliable email and to have emails silently blocked by Spark is absolutely unacceptable.I have spent far too much time on the phone to Spark and always get a different response depending on who I get to talk to. Most of the questions I get are related to Spark webmail, which I rarely ever use. This problem is not getting fixed. Now that I know there is another company with the same problem, it is likely that there are others. If it doesn't get fixed soon I will have to find another service provider. Dazz
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Reception Issue at home (3G).
Hello there. Just Half a year ago moved to a new place. I have noticed that reception was very low but still ok to receive/make calls. After 4 Month reception became worse because new houses was build around quickly (New townhouse area) 1-2 Level houses, and i have 1 level house. Currenlty i have signal level sits on -131 dBm 10 asu. And as i work from home sometimes, sometimes nobody can reach me or i receiving text of miss calls. Because of my work i respond on calls 24/7 and friqently receive calls from contractors and etc. Phone is Galaxy S8+ Previous one Galaxy S5 had same kind of signal level. (LG G6 almost didnt work at all)House is wooden btw. Is it any way to solve it? Any sort of repeater i can install? I just need solid voice connectivity. Data dont worry me since i have wifi at home (Spark as well). Thank you!Kir.
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Help with xtra spam
Anyone here got any contacts with spark/xtra. My company had a email spamming issue and we have fixed it but xtra are blocking us. Trying to find contact to help me.
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National audit prompts Spark store closures
As reported on stuff.co.nz this morning:New Zealand telco company Spark has temporarily closed its Timaru and Ashburton retail stores as it undertakes a national audit on health and safety requirements.Spark senior communications partner Ellie Cross said in an email that the retail stores at 250 East St in Ashburton and 239 Stafford St in Timaru were closed on Thursday."Unfortunately, we've identified that these stores do not satisfy the Spark policy standard for earthquake resiliency, so they have been temporarily closed for the safety of our staff and customers."Our policy standard is more stringent than government building requirements, so we are making these closures by choice rather than by necessity."She said Spark apologised for the inconvenience caused and the company would consider temporary accommodations in the two towns."We know that customers value being able to come into store and receive great service from the local teams, so we're investigating if we can open temporary premises in a safe alternative location as soon as possible, preferably in the next few weeks."The seven Timaru and six Ashburton staff were "being relocated where possible or being assigned work that can be completed remotely", Cross said.The two stores were a valued part of Spark's retail network and the company would remain "absolutely committed to having a Spark presence in these towns", she said.That would be by either reopening the sites once remedial work was completed or by opening at a new location.Customers were urged to contact Spark by chat, phone, social media or by visiting another store for assistance if needed.The nearest stores to customers in Timaru and Ashburton were Ōamaru and Christchurch respectively."We'd prefer not to have to close these stores so close to Christmas, but we hope that this announcement demonstrates our commitment to putting the safety of our staff and customers first," Cross said.
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Still waiting for software update
When oh when will Spark release the Nougat 7.1 update for their Spark branded Spectre Sony Xperia Z5. Sigh new world problems
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ANOTHER VDSL DROP THREAD
I have been enjoying 28 - 30 down 6 - 7 up connection but suddenly over night I have had a HUGE decrease. Now a small drop in speed isn't so bad but 16 down? The one thing i have noticed is downstream noise DB gone from around 5.8 -6 to 12.7Is there a problem my end suddenly or sparks end? I have always had a good 28 connection max been 31I don't have a master filter as I am unable to afford this at this present time.maybe someone from Spark could have a look?Don't know what to do.
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move from VF to Spark?
What with free lightbox, netflix for 1 year etc, the current Spark offer is tempting me to move from Vodafone. Any quick thoughts on Spark's service?none of the big players seem to feature in 'best of' lists but I can save a bit on our streaming services this way for a while.any horror stories switching form VF to Spark? I use DNS4me and presume that's as easy to access admin settings with the Spark provided router?many thanks for any comments....Theo
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Spark Rural Wireless
We are currently on ADSL getting speeds of around 8-10 mbps. Spark website said VDSL was available however when we applied for it we were informed that is isn't actually available. They are trying to get us to go 4g wireless....just wondering how people have been finding the service. How is speed and reliability?
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Aria 28 phone system
This is a long shot, but can anyone suggest where I can get hold of instructions for an (old) Aria 28 PABX phone system. Purchased about 30 years ago (from Telecom I believe) but still going strong and I want to change the ring options etc. Have looked at newer models on line but they don't seem to relate to the Aria 28 system. Have trolled the internet without any success. Any help appreciated.
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internet routable wireless broadband
Trying to use a spark wireless broadband modem for a site to site VPN solution but it seems sparks wireless broadband solution is not internet routable.Spark support ummed and arrrrd about it for an hour and then said it couldn't be done.Is there a solution or trick to this?Internet connections that can't work in both directions aren't much use.Do any other wireless broadband providers do internet routable solutions?
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Static IP now available on Spark RBI !!!
Spark launched their static IP today available on RBI.Yayyyy,I ordered it and it was provisioned with an hour, pretty impressive.But there is a massive BUT with it.BUT.... The stupid crappy B315s huawei modem they supply doesn't support bridge mode, so you still can't create a site to site VPN.Otherwise the static IP works fine and you can port forward using the crappy modem. But if you want to use your own router with VPN function's at this point you are still out of luck.Has anyone managed to get another modem working on spark wireless?Or has anyone managed to hack a capable version of the firmware into their stupid crappy modem.SO Frustrating Spark!!!!
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Spark snake game leaking data
Hi,The snake game at https://www.spark.co.nz/snake uses Facebook login and Firebase. With a small amount of code executed in the console you can extract the users table which includes the email, first/last name and profile picture of everyone who has played the game and signed in with Facebook. I presume the intention was that the users table would power the highscore board at the end of the game but having everyone's details public facing isn't great.
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DVE power adapter on Spark ONT, weird salty-looking deposits on case.
I feel a bit silly complaining about this but the ONT's DSA-20D-12 power adapter has some weird deposits on the lower half, AC end (the side with label.)It looks a bit like salt or sand but has a bad smell to it and is a bit sticky. Anyone else seeing this?My adapter is inside a large fan-cooled steel enclosure, not exposed to anything unusual, and has been in service for about 1.5 years.
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Santa line 2017
Anyone know if Santa is having his 0800 number active this year?
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What's Spark up to? Free modem and cordless phone for nothing?
My flatmate (who's the Spark account owner) spoke with them when we had a line fault.The Spark call centre employee offered him a "free modem and free cordless phone". He asked if by accepting we would be locked into a fixed term contract and they assured him no.Currently we have a regular cordless phone on the copper cable and a Spark modem on ADSL.The items have now arrived (minus a SIM card listed in the packing slip). The modem is a Huawei LTE CPE B315 and the cordless phone is Uniden DECT 1715+1.I see the modem is for 4G. Does that mean Spark are trying to get us off the copper landline?Does it need a SIM card?Our 4G service is patchy (with most carriers) as although we are in Auckland city we are tucked away from line of sight of Sky Tower.Has anyone else had this offer? Do you think it would be without a fixed contract?And lastly, we were thinking of upgrading to fibre anyway. Would you recommend fibre or 4G or staying with ADSL?Thanks for your help.
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Using a Spark MF730M USB 3G Modem with a TP-Link TD-W8968
Hey Guys,Very long time & no posts.So i have done a couple of these setups before to add an internet connection to sites where it is not available.I usually simply connect the USB modem to the Router, Set the router up to "3G Modem Router" Mode, You get some drop downs for the ISP selection which are:Location: New Zealand ISP: Telecom Dial Number: *99# APN: InternetYou can put in the user name & password but never have put anything in.Anyway it won't connect or recognize the device, I have done this twice before with different version routers of the same make & model.Any ideas?
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Rural sensor WAN
I was interested reading in a rural newspaper (NZ Farmers Weekly OCT 9) recently that Spark has partnered with NIWA and some industry NGOs to develop a WAN that would not be reliant on the existing mobile network. The idea seems to be, that a multitude of cheap sensors on the farm would be connected to the internet (of things) by using this network, which would be cheaper and provide better coverage than using the "mobile towers". The article was light on technical detail.Does anyone know how this will be achieved?
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Xtra Spam emails
Wonder if anyone else has the same problem? Having been virtually free of Spam since the migration to the new server I have now started receiving Spam from .date Domains. It only started a couple of weeks ago and is now up to a few each day. I've tried applying a filter to block anything from .date Domains but it doesn't work. It appears it's only possible to block or blacklist precise addresses. It also seems near impossible now to reject incoming Spam and send it to a Spam folder. Surely Xtra must be able to do better? It was much easier to reject Spam when they were with the Yahoo server as their filter system then was so much more user friendly. It is now impossible to mark incoming email as Spam as was possible before.
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Early Termination fee
I wished to change my unlimited data plan back to 120gbs. upon requesting this I was told I had a 24mth plan and there was a termination fee. I was also informed this was because I had a Netflix accountUpon challenging this over the last couple of days They say when I upgraded to Unlimited I agreed to this Netflix account which is free for a year. To my knowledge I did not agree to this. I actually always thought I was unlimited since getting fibre back in 2015. I have been a Spark/Telecom customer for longer than I can remember probably 20+ years. As a result of this I am now going to change my provider. The termination fee is I believe $199.00 which I am going to refuse to pay. The stupid part about all of this is I was only requesting a change in Data plan. It was not going to cost them anything now new modem or setup fee. How stupid can they be. they have now lost a loyal and supportive customer who promoted them to my friends. They are now going to lose around $1200.00 a year from me for the sake of bad customer services. Good Bye Spark I hope you don't treat your other long term customers like this
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